Howard Reed was an ophthalmologist in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He was born in London on 28 April 1914, the son of Morris William Reed, a chartered secretary, and Emmeline Louise Reed. He attended West Ham Secondary School and first qualified as an optometrist. He then decided to become a doctor and was accepted at the London Hospital Medical School, where he paid his way by working as an optometrist in the evenings and weekends. As a student at the start of the Second World War he helped handle casualties from the bombing raids on London. He qualified in 1941. During the latter years of the war he served with the Colonial Medical Service in Tanzania. Following his demobilisation he returned to the UK and trained in ophthalmology in Oxford, gaining his diploma in ophthalmology in 1947. He passed his FRCS in 1950 and began to practice in south London. In 1953 he was appointed to the Winnipeg Clinic, to establish an eye department. The position came with an assistant professorship at the University of Manitoba and hospital beds in the General Hospital. He remained in this post until his retirement. For some time he was head of the ophthalmology department at the Children's Hospital. He also founded the eye department at the Misericordia Hospital and established the first eye bank in Manitoba for corneal grafts. He spent several months every year working in developing countries. In 1960 he wrote *The essentials of perimetry* (London, Oxford University Press). With his wife Margaret he co-founded *The Canadian Journal of Ophthalmology*. Outside medicine, he enjoyed reading and learning, and was always intellectually curious. He was an accomplished pianist and organist in his youth. During the early years of the war he met Margaret and they married in July 1941. After her death in 1975 he married Carolyn. Howard Reed died on 15 November 2010, aged 96. Predeceased by both Margaret and Carolyn, he was survived by his children, Martin, Colin and Alison, and by his step children, Sharon, Mike, Ed and Randy. He had 19 grandchildren and five great grandchildren.